Crossing the border with Blue Jays beat reporter Jordan Bastian.

Wells-for-Bradley?

According to Toronto Sun’s Bob Elliott, the Cubs and Blue Jays have discussed a possible trade that would send Vernon Wells to Chicago and bring Milton Bradley north of the border.

“It’s early on, but we think this one has some legs,” one Cubs official told Elliott. “But they aren’t the only team we are talking with.”

The Cubs are in a situation where they are under pressure to find a way to get someone to take Bradley off their hands. The Jays are in a situation where Wells’ contract is looking more and more the albatross as his performance has dropped.

For Toronto, such a swap would make sense in one way and one way only. It’d free up a huge chunk of salary (Wells is owed $107 million through 2014) and would bring in a short-term solution in Bradley (two years, $21 million left on his deal).

If such a trade did take place, it would be the second time Toronto was bailed out of a huge contract in a matter of months. In August, the White Sox agreed to assume everything Alex Rios was owed through 2015 after claiming him off waivers. If the Cubs were willing to take Wells’ entire contract, it might be tempting to pull off the swap.

But for Bradley?

To me, this wouldn’t fall in line with the much-emphasized philosophy of new Jays general manager Alex Anthopoulos. Since taking over for J.P. Ricciardi, Anthopoulos has stressed the importance of building an organization with high-quality employees on and off the field. Given his history, Bradley does not fit that category.

Bringing Bradley to Toronto would seem to contradict all that talk. Beyond that, the Cubs would suddenly have two of the most untradeable contracts (Wells and Alfonso Soriano) in the game if they pulled the trigger on this. So, given the size of Wells’ deal and Bradley’s history, I’m not sure this deal would happen.

Like this:

Related

2 Comments

So, what about this Bradley swap? The reason that I like it is becasue there are supposedly other teams interested in acquiring Bradley from the cubs. As far as we know, Wells passed through waivers without a sniff. I say we dump Wells on the Cubs, then trade bradely for a bag of balls (or some better hot dogs at the dome).

This post from another blog probably describes the deal the best.
“Imagine if Toronto wins the lottery twice in one year all courtesy of Chicago (the first win being the Rios to Chisox deal). ”
Any way Vernon Wells can be traded is a good thing, he’s a cancer on this team.

Meta

The following are trademarks or service marks of Major League Baseball entities and may be used only with permission of Major League Baseball Properties, Inc. or the relevant Major League Baseball entity: Major League, Major League Baseball, MLB, the silhouetted batter logo, World Series, National League, American League, Division Series, League Championship Series, All-Star Game, and the names, nicknames, logos, uniform designs, color combinations, and slogans designating the Major League Baseball clubs and entities, and their respective mascots, events and exhibitions.